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Personal Stories Create Powerful Copywriting

Do your ads, websites, videos or newsletters seem too dull?

Are you sending messages that fall on deaf ears?

Adding a personal story to your copywriting transforms it into something powerful.

A name and a story helps your audience get involved with any topic.

Recently in Australia, media attention focussed on the plight of farm animals exported live to counties like Indonesia, where the animals are subjected to cruel treatment that is considered barbaric and illegal in western countries.

Live export has gone on for a long time, and animal rights activists have opposed it with little success. In May 2011, charity Animals Australia took video footage of what happens to these animals.

Then they did something very smart. This is a lesson to anyone communicating anything important:

A personal story helps your audience relate to your message.

It is a simple concept and it can be done very quickly. It is not easy to do it well. Animals Australia did it very well when they introduced Brian. In their video, we see a dark-brown steer standing wobbly on a slippery floor in a big room…

“It was hard not to fall in love with Brian. He was a big, affable steer who was trying his best to keep out of trouble.”

This short, simple introduction gives a character to our subject and helps us relate to him. Next we see the final minutes of Brian’s life unfold in an abbatoir supported by Australian Government investments.

Without the introduction, any sane person will find this video horrifying.

With the narrator’s introduction of Brian, the video evokes empathy that is almost unbearable for anyone who has compassion for living creatures.

The introduction places you in Brian’s shoes. It focuses you right down on the emotions of his situaton. It highlights his fear and suffering. As a viewer, you can’t remain detached from his story.

Cynics would say this is manipulative. They’d say cattle don’t have names for a reason.